Access Bangladesh Foundation and Bangladesh DRF Grantee Coordination Committee jointly organized a consultation on “Voluntary National Review: Engaging Persons with Disabilities″ at CIRDAP Auditorium, Dhaka on 4 May, 2017. A total of 19 representatives from 13 DRF Grantees participated in the consultation. Mr. Albert Mollah, Executive Director of Access Bangladesh moderated the consultation. The event was focused on the major issues related to persons with disabilities to be included in the National Report of the Bangladesh Government. It was also discussed on how DRF Grantees can be engaged into the VNR process 2017. The participants were divided into 3 Groups- A, B and C. Each group was provided a poster with a set of questions to provide their inputs within 30 minutes. The consultation was ended with the vote of thanks of Mr. Vashkar Bhattacharjee.

Access Bangladesh Foundation organized a round table discussion on “Persons with Disability Friendly National Budget 2017-18″ at CIRDAP Auditorium, Dhaka on 4 May, 2017 with the support by Disability Rights Fund. Mr. M A Mannan, State Minister of Finance and Planning was the Chief Guest. Ms. Qazi Rosy, MP and Vice President of Parliamentary Caucus on National Planning and Budget was the Special Guest and Mr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, Chairman of PKSF and prominent Economist was the Guest of Honor. Mr, Albert Mollah, Executive Director of Access Bangladesh Foundation presented a keynote paper where he highlighted on how the National Budget 2017-18 can be inclusive for persons with disabilities and he demanded that the volume of budget for persons with disabilities should be Taka 6785 crore in the National Budget 2017-18 in social safety and social empowerment sector. The event was chaired by Mr C M Tufail Sami, Chairperson of Access Bangladesh Foundation.